If you just want to burn things, the most bad ass laser I've had for the money is a 16X BDR-209 Bluray Diode laser module I bought from DTR Laser Shop. It's 405nm and a violet blue color. It doesn't have much of a beam you can see and for the power the spot is not that bright but it burns like nothing I've seen before. Only thing is I think it is dangerous because it doesn't appear very bright due to the sensitivity of the eye at that color. I wouldn't want one of those laying around in a host without a key in it, some kid will likely blind themselves if they got a hold of it, or someone else.
IR is dangerous because you can't see it and no blink response
This is dangerous because you can see it, but it appears to be fairly low power due to the sensitivity of the eye at that wavelength, but it burns like the tip of a needle on a hot poker and does so very quickly.
It burns much faster than some IR lasers I've had at close to its power output, I think of it as a nasty little burner, point at the ceiling with white paint on it and you will quickly burn a spot there, the IR's I've had just aren't so quick and can't be focused to burn at a long distance like this thing can. I suppose the reason for that is with this 405nm laser you can see the beam enough to easily focus it at a distance across a room, IR you can't focus so easily because it's invisible... well, except for a very dim red dot you can see when focused onto something close and if you can see that dot, that's another problem, you could get a reflection invisibly bright enough to cause harm.